By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

ST. MARTIN — While the concession stand will be providing most of the refreshments Friday night and people won’t be bringing covered dishes, it’ll still feel like old home week over a couple of days for St. Martin girls basketball head coach Jason Kennedy this weekend.
In fact, it’ll be a real “Family Affair” in west Jackson County for the second-year Lady Yellow Jackets head coach.
On Friday night, Kennedy’s girls will host one of his former teams, Pearl, in the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs.
Kennedy was a part of that Lady Pirate program for several seasons, including guiding Pearl to the Class 6A state championship in 2019.
Kennedy’s ex-wife, Lacey Palomarez Kennedy, is still the current head coach of the Lady Pirates. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.

Then, on Saturday, Jason Kennedy will have the opportunity to drive the short distance south across U.S. Highway 90 from his home gym to Ocean Springs High School where his son Jay Kennedy will be in action for the Pearl boys team as they face off against the Greyhounds to open the Class 7A South State playoffs at 6 p.m., as well.
“I have a bunch of friends at Pearl, so it’s gonna be a kind of a different weekend for me,” Kennedy said, in an exclusive interview with SouthMiss6 Sports this week. “We had the state championship run just a few years back and I’m forever grateful to them for allowing me to be a part of that special time.”
Kennedy met his future wife when she was a freshman basketball player at Mississippi College and he was a young assistant coach at Bogue Chitto High School. They were married several years later, and she went on to become the all-time leading scorer in the American Southwest Conference for the Lady Choctaws.
Lacey Kennedy grew up in a military household, as both of her parents were Marines. She joined the United States Army Reserve some 20 years ago just after she married Jason.
Just after earning her 100th career coaching win with the Lady Pirates early in November of 2018, she was called up and deployed to Qatar and her then-husband Jason stepped up from his role as an assistant coach to take over the top spot in her absence. He proceeded to lead the team to wins in 28 of their next 29 games as they captured the crown.

This will mark the first time the two have matched up on opposite sidelines. The pair served as each other’s assistants for a few years in Picayune, when he was the head boys coach and she was the head coach of the girls.
None of that matters on Friday night though, according to the St. Martin head coach.
“This is not about us, this is St. Martin vs. Pearl,” Kennedy said. “You know I know how they will be playing, and they know what we will be doing as we like to play a very similar style. It’s going to come down to who wins the turnover battle. If we can turn them over and play our game I feel pretty good.”
The Lady Yellow Jackets marched to the Region 4-7A Tournament title and secured the league championship with a pair of upset wins last week, knocking off second-seeded Harrison Central and top-seeded Biloxi after losing twice to each team during the regular season.
This comes on the heels of a last-place finish in Region 4-6A last season in Kennedy’s first season when St. Martin missed out on the playoffs.
“When I took the job at St. Martin I saw something special in these girls,” Kennedy continued. “Last year was a learning year for them as well as myself. Going into this season, I wanted to make our regular season schedule a lot tougher because I knew we had a chance to make a run.

“I don’t want to call it a Cinderella season but no one picked us to finish first in the district. We believed, so I told them to just go make everyone else believe.”
Pearl enters Friday’s contest at just 9-19 overall, one of the worst seasons in Lacey’s 11-year tenure. St. Martin comes in at a solid 22-7, the best overall mark for the Lady Yellow Jackets entering the state playoffs since 2018.
Then, after the dust settles in St. Martin Friday night, both head coaches will be in attendance Saturday night at Hubbard Gymnasium on the campus of Ocean Springs High as the Greyhounds battle the Pirates. Their oldest son Jay is of the top players for Pearl this season.
“I’m excited to see my son play on Saturday,” Jason Kennedy concluded. “Normally we are playing when they are playing, so I have only been able to see him play a couple of times this year. I’m going to put my pearl shirt on and go cheer him and the guys on Saturday night.”
All in all, this weekend kind of sums up the past two decades for him and his family.
“Basketball has always been kind of another member of the family for us. I guess this weekend is just another example of that.”